San Juan Record Classifieds, Events, Businesses In Monticello, San Juan County, Utah

Sep 01, 2010 | 3170 views | 0 | 47 | |

Seven of the 12 schools in the San Juan School District made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the prior school year under the standards required by the federal government’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The ever-increasing NCLB standard expects to have every student in the country reaching skill competency by 2014. That goal, combined with the need to meet the criteria on approximately 40 different measures, tripped up five schools in the sprawling district.

Bluff Elementary School was determined to have made AYP due to the restructuring of the school under the guidelines of the United States Department of Education School Improvement program.

The remaining schools, including Mexican Hat Elementary, Montezuma Creek Elementary, Monticello Elementary, San Juan High, and Whitehorse High, as well as San Juan School District as a whole, were determined to fall short of meeting the standards required to achieve AYP.

The determination of AYP is based upon whole school performance as well as individual subgroup performance and a number of additional considerations which are factored in. In order to achieve AYP, a school must achieve a certain level of performance on approximately 40 different measurements.

Since its beginnings in 2002, the standards for achieving AYP have increased and will continue to do so until 2014, when it is expected that all children are achieving at the proficient level.

Mexican Hat Elementary achieved the standards for all subgroups except for students with disabilities in both math and language arts.

Monticello Elementary School’s limited English proficient students did not quite make the standard in language arts.

Economically disadvantaged students at San Juan High subgroup did not meet the standard in both math and language arts.

Whitehorse High School was not successful in the economically disadvantaged subgroup in either math or language arts and also did not achieve the standard in language arts in the whole school and the American Indian subgroup.

Montezuma Creek Elementary School has not achieved AYP in mathematics for the second year in a row and as a result is being classified as a School In Need of Improvement. This status brings additional funding and attention to help the school address the areas of concern.

It also provides parents and students with the option of attending another school within the district under school choice. Blanding Elementary School is the option provided by the district for students who wish to exercise the school choice option.

Superintendent Douglas Wright noted, “While these results are not as good as we would have liked to have achieved, a close examination of the data shows that we continue to make progress in the District.

“The changing target of AYP may not be the best indicator of the work that is getting done. No Child Left Behind has helped us focus more specifically on individuals and subgroups, which has been a great thing. However, the labeling of schools is not a good thing and can actually hinder the progress that is being made.

“We greatly appreciate the dedication and diligence of all of our teachers, principals and staff. We continue to improve and know that it takes the effort of all involved in the educational process to reach the goals we have for the students we serve.”

Due to the increasing requirements needed to be met to achieve AYP, the number of schools not achieving that goal will increase statewide. Early indications were that about 40 percent of the schools in the State of Utah were found to have not met the standard this year.

AYP Reports for each school are available on the San Juan School District Web Site at http://www.sanjuanschools.org. Select District Information under the San Juan School District section on right side, select 2009-10 AYP Reports under Announcements and select 2009-10 AYP Package.pdf .

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